Here's another, same caveats apply

WITH CTE AS

(

SELECT id,grp,dte,

ROW_NUMBER() OVER(ORDER BY dte ASC, grp) AS rn

FROM @tbl tbl

),

CTE2 AS (

SELECT id,grp,dte,rn,

MIN(rn) OVER(PARTITION BY grp) AS MinRn

FROM CTE)

SELECT id,grp,dte

--,rn,MinRn

FROM CTE2

WHERE MinRn <= 8

ORDER BY rn;

____________________________________________________

Deja View - The strange feeling that somewhere, sometime you've optimised this query before

How to get the best help on a forum

http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Best+Practices/61537